The film shows Hepnarova as a lonely lesbian outsider from a coldhearted family who doubted her place in society and was unable to connect with others. Her feelings of isolation eventually lead her, at just twenty-two years old, to drive a truck into a group of people waiting to board a tram in Prague. Before the murder, she sent a letter to two newspapers explaining her action as revenge for the hatred against her by her family and the world.

She was later found to be sane and sentenced to death, making her the last woman executed in Czechoslovakia.